Countryside Landscape Research Articles

Before and after Climate Change: The Snow Country in Australian Imaginaries

Before and after Climate Change: The Snow Country in Australian Imaginaries

COUNTRYSIDE BIOGEOGRAPHY OF NEOTROPICAL HERBACEOUS AND SHRUBBY PLANTS

As human impacts on the environment intensify, the future of plant and animal biodiversity will depend increasingly on the floras surviving in human‐dominated “countryside” habitats. To begin to characterize these floras for the Neotropics, we investigated the richness and composition of herbaceous and shrubby plant communities in six forested and deforested habitats, in three replicated study areas (7.5‐km in diameter), of southern Costa Rica. We chose habitat types that are common throughout the tropics, to begin building a general understanding of both the habitats of origin and the diversity of countryside floras. Focal forest habitats were understory, 1‐ to 2‐year‐old tree‐fall gaps, and riverbanks, all in primary forest. Focal deforested habitats were ungrazed road verges, grazed pasture, and riverbanks in grazed pasture. Non‐riverbank habitats were sampled both near and far from forest edge. In total, we sampled 772 species from 79 families, ∼40% of the non‐tree plant diversity of the region. Only 6% of identified species are known to be exotic. In each study area, understory and pasture plots were consistently species poor, while tree‐fall gaps and road verges near forest were consistently the most species‐rich habitats. In each study area, we found the same proportion of species restricted to forested habitats (∼45%) and deforested habitats (∼37%), and the same proportion of “countryside‐habitat generalists” (∼18%) occurring in both forested and deforested habitats. However, different forested habitats supported different proportions of countryside‐habitat generalists in each study area, although understory plots consistently supported the fewest generalists. Among forested habitats, riverbanks were the most similar floristically to deforested habitats. Pasture riverbanks and road verges near forest supported plant communities most similar to those in forested habitats. The uniqueness and richness of each habitat suggests that countrysides with diverse land uses can support many native herbaceous and shrubby plant species. As it becomes increasingly difficult to protect large tracts of undisturbed tropical forest, we suggest that conservation goals expand to encompass maintenance of heterogeneity in countryside landscapes.

« Statut de Berger » des communautés atlasiques, néolithisées du Maghreb oriental, dès 7000 BP

Neolithization through karstic rocky territories from Eastern Maghreb is supported by a special form of pastoralism. Between 7000–5000 BP, a prominent sheep and goat animal husbandry represents a shepherd’ permanent objective, while domestic cattle seems to play a saving role. Aurès reaches allowed us to study a global shepherd living, initiated by small groups, labelled as Neolithic of Capsian Tradition, stricto sensu (NCT). A new approach focuses here on non local archaeological finds from the Capéletti cave, a residential key-site located on the slopes of the Khanguet Si Mohamed Tahar amphitheatre (1540m), gives the lead to explore a winter lowland transhumance behaviour, which was a yearly extension of a summer upland behaviour. Through synchronized data, selected among exotic cultural documents, such as polished stone axes and adzes; marine and ivory-ornaments; and lowland botanic remains from marshes, such as elements of a steppic and salted vegetation, trapped inside sheep fleece, new evidences emerged which were linked, then, with new data based on flocks evaluation as alive animals. This study gives precision on: • the shepherd’s long term objective; • the initial and natural animal husbandry which moved, through an empirical management, on an increasing and controlled sheep, goat and cattle breeding; • the non local cultural goods broad-spectrum, coveted by the shepherds; • the flock meat/animal goods, coveted by peddling nomadic people; • the exchange act and its conventions; • how and when vanished epipaleolithic traditions of this NCT facies, through shepherds’ deliberate and progressive exchanges; • and how and when, outside farming process, might have appeared, on lowlands and hilly areas, a typical open countryside landscape, strictly linked with this ongoing pastoralism. This first local Status of the Shepherd which was the main objective of this neolithization may have settled and spread out through Maghreb territories, an Atlasic Pastoral Society.

The Garden and the Red Barn: The Pervasive Pastoral and Its Environmental Consequences

Pastoralism is a familiar aesthetic' concept that has been discussed often. In the past, the discussion of pastoralism2 most often has been limited as an intellectual construct utilized mainly in literature and art. Yet pastoral themes constitute a popular, powerful, and pervasive mindset in contemporary American culture. Pastoralism evokes a comfortable notion about the countryside, a landscape that is the majority of land use in this country. Importantly, our attitudes toward and subsequent environmental management of this landscape grow from our perceptions of and pleasures in the countryside. Today it is clear that this popular pastoral aesthetic is at work in our everyday perception of much of the American landscape. Since our environmental record in countryside landscapes is poor but largely goes unnoticed, it is timely to re-examine the pastoral theme in the context of contemporary agricultural landscapes. What is the origin of our countryside pastoral aesthetic? Recently discovered psychological and biological dimensions of pastoralism along with the part it plays in the development of public attitudes toward the countryside require that we re-examine popular pastoralism. This essay employs two distinct but related concepts, the search for a garden and the red barn icon, as means of examining contemporary pastoralism.

CHANGING PROCESS OF THE JAPANESE CONCEPT OF THE WORD “SHIZEN”

“Shizen”, in Japanese was translated from the English word, “Nature”, during the Meiji era in Japan, AU instances of “Shizen” appearing in articles in a Japanese newspaper published between 1878 to 1996 were studied in order to examine the process of change of the Japanese concept of the meaning of the word “Shizen”. From the results of this investigation, the following was found:(1)“Shizen” was popularized in the 1960's. The reason for the number of occurrences of “Shizen” appearing in newspapersi ncreased from when it is assumed that Japanese people had lost their belief in a presence of God existing in nature since natural phenomena were known to be both controlled and explained scientifically. However, Japanese people wanted to associate some feeling of mystery related to the meaning of “Shizen” in order to gain spiritual richness.(2) The meaning of “Shizen” lacked in concreteness and did not have one definable meaning due to the ideological recognition of natural phenomenon.(3) Desirable natural environments that were labeled “Shizen” not only included the wilderness. These environments remained in a countryside landscape which was safety and gave one an impression of some kind of mysterious experience.

The Garden and the Red Barn: The Pervasive Pastoral and Its Environmental Consequences

Pastoralism is a familiar aesthetic' concept that has been discussed often. In the past, the discussion of pastoralism2 most often has been limited as an intellectual construct utilized mainly in literature and art. Yet pastoral themes constitute a popular, powerful, and pervasive mindset in contemporary American culture. Pastoralism evokes a comfortable notion about the countryside, a landscape that is the majority of land use in this country. Importantly, our attitudes toward and subsequent environmental management of this landscape grow from our perceptions of and pleasures in the countryside. Today it is clear that this popular pastoral aesthetic is at work in our everyday perception of much of the American landscape. Since our environmental record in countryside landscapes is poor but largely goes unnoticed, it is timely to re-examine the pastoral theme in the context of contemporary agricultural landscapes. What is the origin of our countryside pastoral aesthetic? Recently discovered psychological and biological dimensions of pastoralism along with the part it plays in the development of public attitudes toward the countryside require that we re-examine popular pastoralism. This essay employs two distinct but related concepts, the search for a garden and the red barn icon, as means of examining contemporary pastoralism.

Villager's and City Dweller's Intention for Conservation of Countryside Landscape in the Suburbs of Osaka

Villager's and City Dweller's Intention for Conservation of Countryside Landscape in the Suburbs of Osaka

混住地域におけるコミュニティ形成に関する研究

Recently, Japanese rural policy has imagined such communities where people with different backgrounds (i. e. villagers and newcomers) live together and manage the comfortable “countryside landscape”. However, the actual ways to build such communities are still inexplicit. This paper, taking a case from rurban community in Shiga Prefecture, considers the process of community organization from the angle of social consciousness and behavior.The outcomes of survey have hypothetically revealed the following two points as conditions for the community organization.1) Socialization of Newcomers: Newcomers to village community are apt to make trouble with villagers especially at the initial period of residence. Once the trouble has taken place, it leaves a long-term residue of hard relationship between them. A critical factor for avoiding such a trouble and smoothing adaptation of newcomers is “leaning” of preliminary knowledge on village customs.2) Networking on Environmental Management: The influential newcomers may promptly adopt the current concets on rural environment, such as “countryside landscape”, but they are not experienced in carrying the concepts into cooperative practice. By contrast, the village influentials take temporizing measures to manage the local environment in traditional ways by mobilizing localite social relationship. Thus the existence of “linkers”, who combine the concepts of influential newcomers with the experience of village influentials, could be a critical matter for the organization of “countryside community”.

Scenic Value of Countryside Landscapes to Local Residents: A Whatcom County, Washington Case Study

Scenic Value of Countryside Landscapes to Local Residents: A Whatcom County, Washington Case Study